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-1902.] PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ADDRESSES NAVAL GRADUATES. President Roosevelt personally handed his diploma to each member of the graduating class at the naval academy at Annapolis last week and then addressed the class as a whole. He said: "In receiving these diplomas you become men who above almost any others of the entire union are to carry henceforth the ever-present sense of responsibility which must come with the knowledge that on some tre- mendous day it may depend upon your courage, your preparedness, your keen intelligence and knowledge of your profession whether or not the nation is again to write her name on the world's roll of honor or to know the black shame of defeat. We all of us earnestly hope that the occasion for war may never come, but if it has to come, then this nation must win; and the prime factor in securing victory over any foreign foe must of necessity be the United States navy. If the navy fails us, then we are doomed to defeat, no matter what may be our material wealth or the high average of our citizenship. It should therefore be an object of prime importance for every patriotic 'American to see that the navy is constantly built up, and above all, that it is kept to. the highest point of efficiency, both in material and personnel. It cannot be too often repeated that in modern war, and especially in modern naval war, the chief factor in achiev- ing triumph is what has been done in the way of thorough preparation and training before the beginning of the war. It is what has been done before the outbreak of war that is all-important. After the outbreak, all that can be done is to use to best advantage the great war engines, and the seamanship, marksmanship, and general practical efficiency, which have already been provided by the forethought of the national legislature and by the administrative ability, through a course of years, of the navy de- partment. x "A battleship cannot be improvised. It takes years to build, and the skill of the officers and crew in handling it aright can likewise never be improvised, but must spring from use and actual sea service and from the most careful, zealous and systematic training. You, to whom I give these diplomas, now join the ranks of the officers of the United States navy. You enter a glorious service, proud of its memories of renown. You must keep ever in your minds the thought of the supreme hour which may come when what you do will forever add to or detract from this renown. Some of you will have to do your part in helping construct the ships and the guns which you use. You need to bend every energy toward making these ships and guns in all their details the most perfect of their kind through- out the world. The ship must be seaworthy, the armament fitted for the best protection to guns and men, the guns in all their mechanism fit to do the greatest possible execution in the shortest possible time. Every detail, whether of protection to the gun crews, of rapidity and sureness in hand- ling the ammunition and working the elevating and revolving gear, or of quickness and accuracy in sighting, must be thought out far in advance, and the thought carefully executed in the actual work. The best ships and guns and the most costly mechanism are utterly valueless if the men are not trained to use them to the utmost possible advantage. From now on throughout your lives there can be no slackness on your part. Your duty must be present with you, waking and sleeping. You have got to train yourselves, and you have got to train those under you in the actual work of seamanship, in the actual work of gunnery. If the day for battle comes you will need all that you possess of boldness, skill, determination, ability to bear punishment, and instant readiness in an emergency. But though' without these qualities you can do nothing, yet even with them you can do but little if you have not had the forethought and set purpose to train yourselves and the enlisted men under you aright. Officers and men alike must have the sea habit; officers and men alike must realize that in battle the only shots that count are the shots that hit, and that nor- mally the victory will lie with the side whose shots hit oftenest. Seaman- ship and marksmanship--these must be the two prime objects of your training, both for yourselves and for the men under you." MILLS ARE TAXED TO THEIR CAPACITY. A New York dispatch announces that manufacturers of structural material agree that the capacity of their mills will be inadequate to supply the demand during the current year., In fact a number of the concerns have booked all the business they can take care of this year and consumers who failed to place their orders earlier are looking abroad for relief. A number of large orders for foreign structural steel have been placed during the past several weeks and indications are that shipments of this class of material to this country will reach large proportions before the close of the Present year. The capacity of practically all the steel rail mills has been taken for the entire year and indications are that more business will be carried forward into 1903 than ever before in the history of the country. The Grand Trunk Railway Co. has just placed an order for 25,000 tons of steel rails in England. : The United States Steel Corporation, and other concerns embraced in the so-called steel rail pool, continue to quote $28 a ton for rails, and it is not likely that any change will be made in the price for a long time to come. Little advantage would be gained thereby as the capacity of the mills, as mentioned, has practically been taken for the entire year. The tails for immediate delivery that are now being sold command a price above the schedule price of the steel rail pool, but the transactions of this character are too small to warrant their having any effect on market conditions. The representatives of the steel rail pool will meet in the fall to fix the price of rails for 1908, but according to a manufacturer who keeps in close touch with the affairs of the steel rail mills, no advance is contemplated. In fact the amount of business now booked indicates that a large percentage of the rails will not be delivered until well into next year. The demand for structural material corresponds very closely with that of rails. The structural concerns are so far back in their deliveries that they see fit to turn away considerable business. As a result, the construc- tion of new steel mills is greatly delayed, and indications are that the Production from independent enterprises will not be felt to any extent or at least two years. The enormous demands of the railroads of the country for steel rails, steel bridges and steel cars is one of the largest fac- tors in the unprecedented accumulation of orders calling for the entire Output of the steel industries for months ahead. It is estimated that at feast 2,500,000. tons of steel rails alone will be produced during the current ar. MARINE REVIEW. 15 An idea of how the consumption of steel by the railroads has grown during the last twenty years may be gained from the statement that in 1880 of a total track mileage of 115,647 only 33,680 miles were laid with steel rails. In other words only 29.1 per cent. of the total track mileage was laid with steel rails, the remaining 70.9 per cent. representing iron rails. By 1890 the percentage of steel rails had increased to 80.4 per cent. and in 1900 the percentage was 92.9 per cent. The constant increase in the percentage of steel rails to the total track mileage since 1890 may be gained from the following table: ee Miles Mileage total Steel to Year. steel rails. trackage. total, per cent. 1800° Sse ee 167,458 208,152 804°" BOL Vetead, APR 174,775 214,529 81.5 1802 i 182,711 221,629 82.4 ISOS Sa e 190,718 227,853 83.7 1804 eee SVE Bae 197,491 282,755 84.9 -- 1805: oases ae 206,381 235,031 87.8 1896) Pee ae 210,290 238,730 88.1 1800 Tee ee 215,658 241,701 89.2 1808 ON 220,804 245,239 90.0 °-- 1809: COL eee 228,976 250,363 91.5 1900 i ieee e ee 239,629 257,853 92:9 According to Poor's Manual the mileage of the railroads of the coun- try at the close of 1900 was 192,161 miles, with 65,691 miles of additional second track and sidings. Accordingly there were 47,400 miles more steel rails in the country that year than there were miles of main track. The result of these changes, which have occurred among the railroads, has been to not only cause a large consumption of steel by them at present but to continue this demand in the future. There is probably at the pres- ent time between 255,000 and 260,000 miles of main track, second track and sidings in the United States, practically all of which is laid with steel rails. The life of a steel rail varies very much on various roads accord- ing to the density of traffic. Probably fifteen years would be a fair aver- age. On this basis the railroads would have to replace 60,896,000 yards of track each year with new rails. On an average of 65 pounds a yard this would call for practically 2,000,000 tons of steel rail a year. A NEW HOSPITAL SHIP. Plans have been prepared by B. B. Crowninshield of Boston for a new floating hospital for children of that city. The length over all is 192 ft., beam 34 ft. and depth 12 ft. There will be steam windlasses to raise the anchor, steam pumps and a complete electric lighting plant. A special feature will be a regular hospital steam cylinder for the disinfection of all linen used on the boat. The ship has four decks. Forward of the main deck are two wards with sixteen beds each, and between these wards are examining and treatment rooms. A little further aft is a room for the preparation of babies' food, where milk may be prepared in nearly forty different ways. Other quarters on this deck are doctors' staterooms, dining rooms for doctors, nurses and guests, shower baths and toilet rooms, resident physician's room and another for the superintendent of nurses, and an office, while all around the boat is a large space for patients to wait until assigned to their special wards. On the lower deck forward are a number of contagious wards. A large boiler and dynamo room with a steam disinfector and atmospheric plant, which makes it possible to maintain an even temperature of 74° though the outside climatic con- ditions are quite different, thus keeping the air dry and cool even under the most unfavorable conditions, occupies the midship section. Among other features of this deck are an autopsy room and morgue, refrigerator, linen and sewing room, dining room for mothers and children and ample storage facilities. On the upper deck are four large wards forward and aft, with sixteen beds each, examining and treatment rooms, a pharmacy, an excellent system of dumb waiters to the decks below and the one above, so cleverly arranged that the one leading to the contagious wards does not come in contact with the others. Shower baths for older children, an operating room, a number of isolating wards with two beds each side on both sides of the deck amidship, are also some of the features of this deck. SHIP BUILDING DURING TEN MONTHS. The bureau of navigation reports 1,072 sail and steam vessels of 829,499 gross tons built in the United States and officially numbered during ten months ended April 30, 1902, as follows: WOOD. STEEL, TOTAL. SalIL. STEAM. SAIL. STEAM. Gross Gross Gross Gross Gros Ro: tons. No. tons. Bo: tons. No, tons. ||N°-| tons, Atlantic and gulf ............ 490 | 58,668 |215 | 15,594 || 5 | 8,869 | 46 | 70,542 || 756] 158,673 Porto Ri 2 B4-1ah Ghee El \esceee lets ooweven tal aanicia ce 2 84 Pacific 89 | 22,445 | 59 | 6,972 10,707 || 100} 40,124 TEHWAlL oo cc tcel ese ee 1 TB | ocescalisercetesscclpeelicc es see ] 13 Great lakes..... 6 161 | 49 2,173 126,376 94| 128,710 Western river 6 114 |110 | 6,646 185 || 119} 6,945 543 | 81,422 1434 | 31,398 5 8,869 | 90 | 207,810 "1072! 329,499 During the corresponding ten months ended April 30, 1901, 881 sail and steam vessels of 310,182 gross tons were built in the United States and officially numbered, as follows: WoopD. STEEL. TOTAL. SAIL. STEAM. SaIL, Sram. Gross Gross Gross Gross Gross No. 'tons. |N°-| tons. ||N®-| tons. |N°-| tons. ||N-| tons. Atlantic and gulf___.---- 361 | 64.226 |153 9,261 7 | 10,012 | 31 | 61,745 11552 | 145,244 Borto Rico---------------||-45 "sy arg | ge | Bok NL. 8 | AOR as ae oe Hawaii-_...-..----------s]| --2-|----<-0-|-25-|-- 4-2, a ||-- 52 |~acr anne nna lena e cena | [noon | eo maa an z 5 108 | 33 4,121 5 | 11,236 | 34 | 104,354 || 77 | 119,819 Ge ene et eo] «917 | 86 | ABT 2. Lae 1| '662 |/137 | 9/349 Paar ted 461 | 86,624 [337 | 29,546 || 12 | 21,248 | 71 | 172,714 ||981 310,132